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AUSTRALIAN SHARK EXPERTS will test cutting-edge technology – including electrical barriers powered by wave energy – following an “unprecedented” series of attacks on swimmers.
The country has one of the world’s highest incidences of shark attacks and researchers from around the world met in Sydney on Tuesday at a meeting organised in part to address community fears.
“What we’ve seen is pretty unprecedented,” New South Wales state Premier Mike Baird told the conference of a string of attacks in eastern Australia which left one dead and seven injured.
A Japanese surfer died in February after his legs were torn off by a shark but there have been other serious attacks up and down the more than 2,000-kilometre-long (1,243-mile) NSW coast.
There have been 13 attacks in the state so far this year, compared to three in 2014.
“Ultimately, we’ve moved from a position in some parts of the coast where the coastline was joy… (to) fear, and we need to take that away,” Baird said, adding that his government hoped to test some of the recommended technologies during the upcoming summer.
The decision-making process (to roll out the technologies) will be on the basis of the science… it will not be knee-jerk, it will not be in relation to any form of populist outcry.
Baird – an avid surfer who has ruled out culling sharks as an option – said he hoped experts would find ways to balance the need to protect humans against reducing the harm to marine life caught in barriers such as nets.
Deterrent technologies set to be reviewed include electrical barriers that can be powered by wave energy, as well as personal devices that surfers and swimmers can wear.
Detection methods include a smart drumline where sharks are removed from hooks before they die, and the “Clever Buoy”, which uses sonar technology to search for shark-sized objects.
Marine biologist Daryl McPhee of Bond University, who helped the state government compile a preliminary list of options, said the recent innovations had increased researchers’ understanding of shark behaviour.
Sharks have seven senses. We don’t clearly know how sharks completely sense their environment but we know much more than we did 10 years ago.
“We’re able to use the information to potentially design better deterrence (technologies).”
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An electric fence to stop swimmers going in would probably be more effective!
Doubt it, humans are pretty dumb
Unprecedented for sharks to attack you in their home!! Their bloody home. Sharks never attack anything dry. Remember that.
Increased shark attacks are a good indicator of over-fishing. This is a band-aid solution to a much bigger problem that is being ignored.
Feed the sharks. Let them know it’s Christmas time.
Dame sharks looking for meal how dare they!
Rule should be simple, enter the water and you make yourself shark bate end of, no one else’s fault when you lose your limbs
What’s a Dame shark? One that’s received an order of the British Empire?
Aren’t selfie-sticks even more dangerous?
Australia (or anyone else) has no right to “get tough with sharks”. FFS. The oceans are their element – they can exist nowhere else. They are an essential part of the chain of life and they’re being slaughtered in their millions because of a stupid film, and Chinese superstition. Swim in a bleedin’ pool if you’re too warm, Ozzies, or take to the sea when there are no sharks present. Also, cut down on the over fishing – everything in the ocean is hungrier than ever because we are sweeping it of all food sources..
Has anyone even considered sending some Marines in to infiltrate and bite the sharks?
Funny, reading this you’d think its a mass shark feeding frenzy out there. But I was down at bondi beach yesterday and as usual there were about 100 surfers in the water. They don’t seem too bothered. Wouldn’t get me in there though, fook that. Maybe I need to stay off the journal for a while..
Sharks are massive, unpredictable and have big teeth. All makes for good news. Hundreds of thousands of Australians enjoy the water every week without being attacked. Things that people fear and things that are likely to kill them are very different things.
Turning the sea into a zoo they are.
Erm. . The sharks are doing the same thing they’ve been doing for around 450 MILLION YEARS.. they’ve been on the planet longer than humans and survived 5 mass extinctions, yet now in 2015 they’re suddenly the bad guys becsuse idiots can’t leave them to their natural habitat.
The chances of having an encounter with a shark are slim to none. You enter the water at your own risk.
Forgive me for going off topic, but wow, what a picture. Great snap. That seal must have more lives than a cat.
Get out of the water!!
Poor Jaws gets a bad rep..It’s not the worst of the bunch. http://m.thenewdaily.com.au/news/2015/06/26/deadliest-australian-animals/
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